Some kewl links.

Here are a few of the sites I'm visiting of late. First, I'm gonna put Netflix on my b-i-g no-no list. Why? It's called throttling and it blows. So, the good news is we seem to have a choice. There's Greencine, but I can't love how their movies are organized on their site. There is Quikfliks which has a system called Rapid Return that I appreciate, but it costs more per month (justifiably so). There is Intelliflix, which would be a clear frontrunner, if I haven't read so many reviewers saying they take over a week for dvd's to arrive. Intelliflix has a Superpass pre-pay plan that ends up costing less than $12/month for 3-at-a-time. Geez, I wish someone could point me in the right direction for a great value and reliable service. I just want an option to Netflix, so I can stop using them. Some site reviews here and here.

If you're into films, you should already have these two sites bookmarked, the-numbers and imdb. The-numbers gives info on the budget of Hollywood films, how much principal actors got paid, and what the box office returns were like. Internet Movie Data Base (sites are related, I believe) offers info into full cast and crew, and photos of your fave stars with detailed bios.

Prolly the only blog I check regularly is this one: Neville's Financial Blog. Props to this highly motivated business student in Texas. He's been covered in the Wall Street Journal and other media. He seriously knows how to get his foot in the door and writes candidly about all his goings on, even offering his bank account balances to the viewers.

If you're on a Mac, you might like this site: rad-e8. This one-man show, Sascha, offers up plenty of tasty Mac icons and desktop images for your enjoyment. Forget about iconfactory for your new Intel Duo Mac icons.

If you're finding you just don't have anything to occupy your day, you can visit an interesting blog here, he writes mostly about computers and technology- and even develops some Mac-based app's. I also like this inversion photoset on flickr, Chris Lombardi. For addiction-based site-browsing, you can't do without StumbleUpon. They have kewl sites and photos and content that users (free membership) post up as links and places. You can spend hours browsing, I swear!

Dog owners (yes!), this should already be known to you, dog-friendly and CitySearch. Dog-friendly has listings for everything from beaches to resorts all across this expansive US of A. CitySearch has lots of local happenings that our four-legged friends can gleefully attend with us. There is a great event at Zazie in Cole Valley, Bring Your Doggy to Dinner on Monday nights. IMHO, it's one of the best outdoor patios in SF.

Here's a review of Zazie, from another site I like, Yelp! Kinda like CitySearch; but I think it to be less biased. As I said in an earlier post, CS seems to favor those places that pay for advertising with them. Yelp! seems more user-based, which is a very good thing.

Oh, lastly... If you think you've got it in good with your camera, you could take some money back from Microsoft. They are having a Future Pro Photographer Contest with a top prize of $20,000 cash (more info). Entries due by May 31st so get snapping!